HOUSTON — Move over, “Sudden Sam”
McDowell and the rest of the 1966 Cleveland Indians pitching staff. The Rangers
have taken your spot in history.

When closer Joe Nathan struck out the side in the ninth
inning to finish a 4-0 victory against Houston
at Minute Maid Park,
the Rangers claimed a bit of baseball esoterica: most strikeouts in the first
three games of a season.

The Rangers had 43 strikeouts, one more than the Indians’
total in 1966 when postponements allowed McDowell to start the first two games.
For the series, the Rangers had more outs by strikeouts than by balls in play.

“All I care about is we won the last two games and won the
series,” said manager Ron Washington, pleased to avoid the ignominy of losing a
season-opening series to the Astros.

The Rangers rebounded from losing the opener because they
had two starters with devilish sliders going against overmatched lineups.

On Tuesday night, right-hander Yu Darvish came within one
out of a perfect game in a 14-strikeout performance. Right-hander Alexi Ogando,
motivated by Darvish’s performance, followed with 10 strikeouts in 6 1/3
innings. The outfield had only three putouts in the last two games.

Darvish and Ogando each set a career high for strikeouts.
Matt Harrison lost the opener but tied a career high with nine strikeouts.

“Our staff has the ability to do that, especially our
starters,” catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “It’s going to be interesting to see
if we can continue this. It’ll be hard to keep up this pace, but we can
continue to get outs.”

This marked Ogando’s return to starting, which he prefers.
As a starter in 2011, Ogando got by on two pitches: high fastball and slider.
He went 7-0 with a 2.10 ERA in his first 12 starts before the league caught up
to him by taking advantage of the lack of an off-speed pitch.

Ogando came back to the rotation with a budding changeup.
He threw it 13 times, just enough to keep the hitters guessing.

“I worked very hard during spring training on those three
pitches,” said Ogando, speaking through an interpreter. “I think today was the
result of all my hard work. I think I was able to prove to many people that
those three pitches could be really effective.”

As was the case during spring training, Ogando lacked
consistent command of the fastball. His slider was as effective as Darvish’s
breaking pitch.

Darvish never threw a pitch with a runner on base. Ogando
allowed the first batter faced, Jose Altuve, to reach on a double. Altuve went
to third on an infield out, and the Rangers conceded a run by playing the
infield back for Carlos Pena.

Ogando would not concede. He struck out Pena on a slider
and escaped the inning by throwing a fastball past Chris Carter, hitless for 11
at-bats in the series.

“He was pounding the strike zone,” said Pena, who had six
strikeouts in 10 at-bats for the series. “And when he threw a ball, he made it
look like a strike, so he got a lot of chases. He really mixed his pitches up
well. He was outstanding.”

There was a moment of brief doubt.

With two outs and two on in the third, Ogando fell behind
at 2-0 to Pena. That brought Washington to the mound. When the manager makes
the first trip to the mound, it is not a casual visit.

Washington bluntly told Ogando to throw more strikes.
Ogando listened and responded. He put away Pena on a grounder, starting a run
of nine consecutive outs. Houston did not have another at-bat against Ogando
with a runner in scoring position.

“I felt like there was something I needed to say,”
Washington said. “I’m no miracle worker.”

The Rangers finally rewarded Ogando with a lead on a
bases-loaded, double-play grounder by Nelson Cruz in the sixth. Michael Kirkman
and Nathan finished Ogando’s win by striking out the final five hitters. It was
a fitting ending to a record-setting show.